With flu season upon us and colder weather leading to more time spent indoors, we encourage you to take preventative measures to help limit the transmission of illness within the AU community and to ask your students to do the same.  

Most important, please monitor your health and stay home if you are experiencing any symptoms. You are welcome to move your face-to-face classes online temporarily if you are under the weather but feel well enough to continue teaching virtually.  

Please remind your students to avoid coming to class while they are sick and support them in making up work missed during health-related absences.  As the instructor of your course, you have the discretion to excuse absences. You do not need permission from the Office of the Dean of Students or the Student Health Center to excuse absences. Please do not require students to obtain documentation for an illness from the Student Health Center for a short-term absence, or request or accept medical documentation from students. 

However, if a student is experiencing a significant medical condition that may affect academic progress or result in prolonged absences, please encourage the student to work directly with the Office of the Dean of Students. The Office of the Dean of Students will work with the student to obtain documentation and communicate directly with the student’s faculty and advisor.  

We encourage you to work with students who have medical absences, including sharing notes, slides, assignments, and/or creating audio/video recordings of your class meetings. Please note that WCL faculty should follow the law school’s guidelines for absences, class recordings, and remote teaching.   

We strongly recommend that you support your health and the health of our community by getting your annual flu shot and staying current on your Covid-19 boosters. You can learn more about flu shots for faculty and staff and pass along information on flu shots to your students. Details on locating updated booster shots are found in the Covid-19 Guide.

Take care and stay healthy!